Howdy NSquared readers!

As we all know, eventually our beloved PC’s need tune-ups. But how do you know if the time has come for yours? Check out these four signs from Aol below:

“Signs Your Computer Needs a Tune-up

…Here are a few signs that could indicate that a tune-up is in order:

Slow Computer

Your system can be slow for lots of reasons, but often there’s a simple computer fix. Data clutter, insufficient memory or system resources and failing hardware are the most often-occurring causes of a slowdown. Sometimes, if you clear your browsing history and clean up the Windows registry, you can fix your PC. However, if you’re not a skilled PC technician, you could create additional problems.

Error Messages

An application on your computer system may have its own bugs or problems that are causing error messages to appear on your screen. A PC tune-up searches the causes of the error messages and can often eliminate them.

PC Freezes, Crashes and Shutdowns

It’s always when you’ve just done your best work that your computer crashes, right? PC crashes or freezes can be caused by too many open applications, too much data or not enough memory to support the running functions. It’s important to periodically tune up your PC in order to clean out old data and applications that are using memory unnecessarily and causing a computer slowdown.

Long Start-up and Shut-down times

A PC tune-up can repair hard-drive fragmentation, fix the Windows registry and delete useless files. These problems can be causes of your computer’s taking a long time to start up or shut down. You might have applications launching at start-up that you don’t realize are there and they are grabbing memory and slowing down the whole system.

Whether you inadvertently downloaded something that’s troublesome or your computer is simply aging and needs freshening up, a PC tune-up is a great idea. Keeping track of scheduled maintenance for your computer will benefit you just as much do those tune-ups you do for your car… booting up your computer to find it’s not working properly is just as aggravating as a car that won’t start…”

(Image Credit: Flickr/ Randy Pertiet)